Attorneys for NBA’s Charles Oakley fire back over casino altercation

There’s more "he-said, they-said" action in retired NBA player Charles Oakley’s lawsuit over an altercation at a Las Vegas casino.

Known as a rough enforcer during his playing days, the Charlotte Bobcats assistant coach sued the Aria resort on May 12 charging a 2010 incident with security at a hotel-casino pool escalated into a beating that left him with potentially permanent injuries.

The MGM Resorts International casino, several security officers and an audio-visual technician who was working at the pool countersued Oakley last month, charging he was the instigator and that he has a history of assaulting casino workers but then avoiding criminal charges as a VIP.

Attorneys for Oakley fired back on Friday, filing papers in Clark County District Court denying his celebrity status has anything to do with him not being arrested.

"Charges are pursued by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department when a crime has been committed, irrespective of a 'status as a high roller.' No charges were ever bought against Oakley as the allegations are untrue," said his filing by attorneys with the Las Vegas law firm Kaempfer Crowell Renshaw Gronauer & Fiorentino.

They also denied allegations in the counterclaim that Oakley consumed large amounts of liquor prior to the incident, saying this and other allegations are "designed to further mischaracterize the facts and defame Oakley."

The security guards and Aria say Oakley was the aggressor when confronted by security after he became agitated at the Liquid pool and assaulted pool workers after they refused to let him invite additional women into the pool because it was near closing time.

Oakley’s attorneys denied this in their filing Friday.

"Oakley’s actions were justified to prevent harm to himself," their answer to the counterclaim said.

Unless the lawsuit is settled, it’s now on track for evidence to be collected during discovery and potentially may culminate in a trial.

Casino security regularly overreaches and often oversteps the bounds of legal behavior in dealing with unwanted patrons. There have been numerous lawsuits, settlements, and verdicts for security acting wrongfully, usually against patrons who use their brains in playing casino games, but often against ordinary guests who somehow annoy the guards. Generally speaking, I would find the victim, in this case Mr. Oakley, more credible than poorly trained and supervised casino guards. There is too much history of guard abuse of patrons to assume the guards are telling the truth, when they so often fail to do so. Here are examples of many cases of casino security guards abusing patrons:

Look closely at the third one down, involving the Venetian, for particularly egregious conduct by casino guards.

Metro police refuse to do their jobs in arresting and charging guards who commit crimes against patrons. Here is a letter from an attorney who frequently represents these victims. He never even received the courtesy of a response: